MUSIC BUSINESS TECHNOLOGYMusic Business Technology: a 3-in-1 Degree!

Millersville University Music Students had the amazing opportunity of working with the world famous classic rock band, Foreigner. Not only did Foreigner share their wisdom about touring and performing with the students, they shared their stage as well.

New Music Business Technology (MBT) director and faculty member, Dr. Barry Atticks has already made his mark at Millersville over the last year. Atticks realized that students were not getting all the training they needed to compete in today’s music industry.

During Spring Break, nineteen Millersville Music Business and Technology students and two Millersville Music Faculty members, Dr. Barry Atticks, Director of Music Business and Technology, and Dr. Jose Garcia, Voice Division Chair and Voice Instructor, traveled south to the “Music City.” There, in Nashville, they spent their five-day educational trip attending live shows, tours, and seminars with bands and sound companies.

For the sixth year in a row the LAUNCH Music Conference Festival has brought together two aspects of the music industry by combining both a music conference and festival right here in Downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The Millersville Music Department sponsored a large recruitment event, “Unmask the World of Music Business and Technology” on October 31, 2013 to attract the next class of Music Business Technology majors.

MUSIC EDUCATIONCommunity Centered. Career Ready.

Millersville University in collaboration with Yamaha Music and the Wellness Institute is participating in “Musical Moments,” a program that offers free piano lessons to Veterans. The goal of “Musical Moments” is to “integrate creative musical expression with proven bio-psycho-social strategies” and help veterans who are and may be wounded physically or emotionally to tap into their personal creativity (“The Institute”).

Millersville University’s close community partner, the School District of Lancaster, has been named to the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation’s list of Best Communities for Music Education in 2014.

On April 7, 2014, Millersville University Department of Music’s community partner SWAN was awarded the Distinguished Civic Leadership Award at Millersville University’s Civic and Community Engagement and Research Project’s award ceremony.

On April 4 during a Master Class hour piano session, students Sharon Ho and Steven Gao had the privilege of performing piano pieces for renowned “composer, conductor and audience music educator” George Tsontakis (" Pytheas).

MUSIC PERFORMANCEPerformers as Entrepreneurs

Nearly 100 choral conductors from across the state—all members of the American Choral Directors Association of Pennsylvania (ACDA-PA)—travelled to the Winter Visual and Performing Arts Center on the Millersville University campus to “join together to renew ourselves for the great, noble task of music-making” during the third annual ACDA-PA Fall Conference, October 25-26, 2013.

The Millersville University Percussion Studio was extremely active during the 2013-2014 academic year. From performing concerts and recitals to hosting guest artists for events to being involved in community programs, the year proved to be successful in all areas.

Alumni

Millersville University music alumni Dominic Billet and Bill McCloskey are members of the uprising band Toy Soldiers. Billet plays the drums and the accordion; McCloskey plays the bass guitar, and they both contribute vocals.

Millersville University music alum John Maurer has had the wonderful opportunity to be recognized as a semi-finalist in the 2014 National Trumpet Competition (NTC) at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

This past November Dr. Barry Atticks, Director of the Music Business Technology Program, and Dr. Christy Banks, Assistant Music Department and Recruitment Chair, and Professor of Clarinet and Saxophone held a music seminar at Manheim Central Middle School.

Millersville University music department had a great privilege of welcoming four faculty members and eight students from the piano department of the China Conservatory of Music from Beijing into the Biemesderfer Concert Hall on April 24.